The Mentally Ill Offender: from Arrest to Release. BY: JESSICCA WHALEY SARAH DUDZINSKI TIFFANY GLOVER

What is Mental Illness?

A mental illness is a medical condition that disrupts a person's thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning.

Examples of mental illness include depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders and addictive behaviors.

Mental health concern becomes a mental illness when ongoing signs and symptoms cause frequent stress and affect your ability to function.

When mental illness is mixed with criminal behavior the consequences can be severe.

Arrest

Arrest means to seize and take someone into legal custody When dealing with people that have mental illness, officers may

not notice the person is mentally ill. Some officers are still know to tackle, Taser, or even shoot a

mentally ill person if they feel threatened.

How Officers Deal with Mentally Ill

Officers receive very little training on how to deal with mentally ill or emotionally disturbed offenders.

Officers that have been on the police force for a long period of time is how experience is gained for dealing with mentally ill offenders.

How the Mentally Ill are separated from general population.

Determining who is mentally ill

Only 1% of suspects plead insanity for charges and that plea is rarely successful.

To protect against the defendant to go free some states have eliminated the not guilty by reason of insanity and is replaced with guilty because of mental illness.

Representing a mentally ill inmate

Judges and jurors will give a harsher sentence to offenders that do not have an extreme case of mental illness.

Judges and lawyers have a more difficult time to resolve a case for someone that is mentally ill because they want them to receive proper treatment and help that is needed.

Courts

The municipal court is not especially equipped with the tools needed to properly assess the needs of an individual with a mental illness.

Some offenders are diverted from the criminal justice system to the mental health system.

The prosecution of their case may be postponed by the judge until a complete mental health assessment can be done.

Court Cont…

Mental health courts (MHC) were created to help offenders get their life back on track.

There are approximately over 300 mental health courts in the United States.

Participants are usually referred by a judge, prosecuting or defense attorney, law enforcement, or sometimes a family member.

Concerns

The intensely increased existence of the mentally ill person in the criminal justice system is a crucial problem.

It is a big concern for mental health professionals. Critical over crowding exists not only in jails but mental hospitals

as well. Lack of adequate support for the mentally ill leads to

criminalization of a severely mentally ill persons.

Treatment

An essential part of support systems for these persons is the availability of the community treatment resources.

Patients must comply with restrictions given by the judge or additional charges may occur.

Offenders may be re-institutionalized by adding extra minor charges.

Criminally “Insane”

Using the defense not guilty by reason of insanity is not a “get out of jail free card”

There is much confusion and discussion on whether the treatment or punishment is more appropriate.

The question is whether or not an offender can be held accountable for his/her actions or whether they are a safety risk to themselves or others.

Following this verdict is commitment of an indefinite duration.

Criminally “Insane” Cont…

Mentally ill offenders must be able to comprehend that they have committed a crime and are being held legally responsible.

They must come to terms that they are considered mentally ill. All restrictions made by a judge must be followed in order to

avoid further charges. The possibility of recidivism is very possible.

Some Drawbacks

These individuals are not receiving intervention in their lives until after they have already committed a crime.

The MHC only exist because the public mental health system has failed to meet the needs of the mentally ill.

There are very few preventative measures available due to lack of resources (money)

Legal Concerns

Individuals may not be competent to agree to participate There is much concern of non-compliance or refusal to

participate. It has been noted that in some cases the MHC are cherry picking

the cases they believe will have a successful outcome. Lastly, there is no definite answer and no “quick fix” to these

problems

Corrections

More people with mental illnesses are being incarcerated each year for the crimes that they have committed.

A study has found that in 44 states, the largest institution housing people with severe mental illness is a jail or prison, not a state psychiatric hospital.

Going back in time.

In 1959, nearly 559,000 mentally ill patients were housed in state mental hospitals.

A shift to "deinstitutionalize" mentally ill persons had, by the late 1990s.

That had left about 70,000 people in the mental institutions, while the rest were free to roam the community.

This in return left them to be homeless and commit crimes against other people.

What Offences?

Mentally ill inmates were more likely than others to have been convicted of violent offenses (murder, sexual assault, robbery, or assault).

In state facilities, 53 percent of mentally ill inmates had been convicted of a violent offense, compared to the 47 percent of other inmates.

Offenders with mental illness are more likely to commit violent offenses because they don’t know how to control their emotions.

So how large are the numbers?

In a 2006 Special Report, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) estimated that 705,600 mentally ill adults were incarcerated in State prisons, 78,800 in Federal prisons and 479,900 in local jails.

Growing numbers in the mental ill have strained the correctional system.

In 2012, there were estimated to be 356,268 inmates with severe mental illness in Prisons and jails.

So how large are the numbers?

There were also approximately 35,000 patients with severe mental illness in state psychiatric hospitals.

Mentally ill persons in prisons and jails was 10 times the number remaining in state hospitals.

Recommendations

There are certain recommendations that the prisons and jails must follow when handling the mentally ill:

To provide appropriate treatment for prison and jail inmates with serious mental health issues.

Promote jail diversion programs. To mandate release planning.

Why is mental health and drug programs beneficial?

A lot of these mentally ill offenders are addicted to drugs and alcohol.

A fear of letting the mentally ill out of prison Is that they are going to start using drugs and alcohol again, which will lead them to reoffending.

It is beneficial for the offender to take these programs to gain the knowledge so they don’t put themselves back in prison.

Interviews

Arrest: Officer Mike Schwebs (3rd district Cleveland police officer) Officer Dave Kammerman (Berea Police Officer) Court: Judge Mark Comstock (Berea Municpal Court judge) Corrections: Sarah Aguilerar (Counselor; also first hand experience with a

family member)

Interviews

Corrections: Kimberly Barrnet (Prosecutor) Chuck Hall (VGS, Non-Profit) Angela Riveria (Parma Jail Corrections Officer) Jeff Bertram (Wardens Assistant) Wendy Kelly (Mental Health Consultant)

What I learned

There is too many mentally ill offenders that get passed off and left to their own devices.

If I could I would bring back sanitariums and create resources and a positive environment for them.

Being a mental health professional is not as easy as it seems. Jail is not always the answer for the mentally ill offender.

What I learned

There are programs out there for the mentally ill. Not everybody qualifies for them. Prisons and jails are growing rapidly with mentally ill inmates as

time goes on.

Jails are the "new insane asylums"